WordPress 3.0

[felgall]

Has anyone tried turning on the new multi-site option in WordPress 3.0 yet so as to host multiple blogs with just the one copy of WordPress.

[liangzai]

Sure. Combined three completely separate domains into one installation. Works as a charm.

[Jolly]

I looked for it but couldn't find it - then I went to the Wordpress mu site and they are still allowing download of 2.9.2 so I assumed it handn't been incorporated yet. Is it in the admin panel or do you have to upload something extra to get it going??

[farcaster]

Stephen, I just got my system back running after two disk drive crashes.

I'll be testing the multi-site setup both with subdirectory and subdomains this weekend. I'll try to put together a write-up / tutorial while I do it.

[felgall]

Stephen, I just got my system back running after two disk drive crashes.

I'll be testing the multi-site setup both with subdirectory and subdomains this weekend. I'll try to put together a write-up / tutorial while I do it.

Seem to be lots of disk drive crashes happening lately. I had two failures last month - one of a five week old 1500Gb drive and one a brand new 500Gb drive I hadn't even installed yet. Fortunately the 1500Gb drive was a backup drive duplicating info on other drives and both drives were replaced under warranty so all it cost me was a little time.

[Sunlight]

I'll be testing the multi-site setup both with subdirectory and subdomains this weekend. I'll try to put together a write-up / tutorial while I do it.

Thanks farcaster, I am looking forward to your tutorial.

Have a great day!

[liangzai]

http://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network

I looked for it but couldn't find it - then I went to the Wordpress mu site and they are still allowing download of 2.9.2 so I assumed it handn't been incorporated yet. Is it in the admin panel or do you have to upload something extra to get it going??

[Jolly]

Hi farcaster,

I'm also very keen to see your tutorial

Regards

[farcaster]

Well, here's an update to this project.

I have been able to get this to work using subdomains and subdirectories on both my Mac and Windows XP Pro. The Windows XP is running on VMWare Fusion. On the Mac I am using MAMP, somewhat customized (not MAMP Pro), and on Windows is chose XAMPP. MAMP is easier to make work. XAMPP just doesn't seem quite as elegant, but I managed.

I was able to spend about a full day on this to get it working, and what I need to do next is wipe out the setups and do it again getting screen shots, write down the procedures, etc., now that I know what to expect to see.

I haven't tested anything yet using BH, but I don't see any problems there. WP claims that you need wildcard DNS, which isn't supported here, and probably isn't supported on any shared hosting. I do have some ideas that I will try out this week.

Thanks for the responses.

[liangzai]

Most shared hosting sites allow wildcard DNS, so does Bluehost, sort of.

What you do is that you define a wildcard subdomain * to your principal domain.

I did that, and it works as a charm for my three completely separate domains run in a single WP30 installation.

Instructions:

1. Install WP30 for your blog at domain.com
2. Add this to your wp-config.php: define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);
3. Define your blog netrwork in Network/Tools after reloading your WP admin panel
4. Go to your Bluehost CP and add the subdomain * to your domain domain.com
5. Install this: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/...omain-mapping/
6. Add this to wp-config.php: define( 'SUNRISE', 'on' );
7. Reload your WP admin panel and choose Superadmin/Domain mapping. Add the IP number for domain.com and check items 2 and 3 (Permanent redirect and User domain mapping page) only.
8. Define a new blog using a subdomain in Superadmin/Web sites: subdomain.domain.com

You are done if this is what you want, and you really don't need the domain mapping stuff. But let's suppose you have another blog at anotherdomain.net and want to put it into the blog network now defined at at domain.com. Then you continue like this:

9. Define a new blog anotherdomain.domain.com, which is a placeholder for anotherdomain.net.
10. Export your blog at anotherdomain.net
11. Log into anotherdomain.domain.com using your regular admin account (for domain.com), do NOT use the new user that was created
12. Import your export file into anotherdomain.domain.com, and then make sure it looks exactly like your old anotherdomain.net -- because after next step, your old anotherdomain.net will BE GONE from the internet.
13. As admin in anotherdomain.domain.com, choose Tools/Domain mapping and and map anotherdomain.net to anotherdomain.domain.com, and check "primary domain for this blog".
14. Go to your Bluehost CP and either park the domain anotherdomain.net o have it point to the same file sharing point as domain.com
15. Reload the admin panel at anotherdomain.domain.com, you will now be redirected to anotherdomain.net (mapped), and have to log in again (as admin).
16. Go to Superadmin/web sites and choose preferences for anotherdomain.domain.com. Change all occurences of anotherdomain.domain.com to anotherdomain.net, and anotherdomain.domain.com is completely gone from the system.

Things to watch out for:

i. When activating multisite, Wordpress might add a blog prefix to your current installation, which will screw up the entire permalink structure. Just remove that blog prefix in the preferences for that blog under Superadmin/Web sites.

ii. Before importing your old blog, make sure you have unchecked "Wordpress should correct XHTML", because otherwise all tables, objects and whatever will be wiped.

iii. The string anotherdomain.domain.com may still be present in posts in your new blog after importing. Replace these occurences using SQL statementes or by hand to anotherdomain.net.

iv. Don't use "Network activate" unless you are sure what you are doing.

WP claims that you need wildcard DNS, which isn't supported here, and probably isn't supported on any shared hosting.